1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to exercise equipment, and more specifically to control systems for exercise equipment designed to prevent abuse of the equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Physical fitness is extremely important to a growing segment of the population. With an ever-increasing number of overweight and obese people worldwide, the number of facilities such as fitness centers is also increasing, as is the number of clientele each center services. Each fitness center, however, has a finite amount of space and can thus accommodate a finite amount of exercise equipment. Nonetheless, a typical fitness center constantly seeks to bring in new members, despite that the number of machines it can offer its members is constrained by its physical premises.
One problem arising out of this situation is the abuse of machinery in a fitness center. Because there are, in many instances, more members in a given fitness center than exercise machines, it is a common occurrence that all of the machines are in use and excess or additional members must stand around in line waiting for machines to use. Rather than cap the number of members it may have (which would mean capping its source of revenue), a fitness center may limit the amount of time a member may spend on a given machine during a workout. This is usually intended to be achieved by the posting of a sign near the fitness equipment reading “please limit your workout to 30 minutes during peak hours”, or words to that effect. However, people being people, these signs often go unheeded, with members using a machine for far longer than the prescribed posted period. This prevents other members from using the equipment, and may encourage altercations between members waiting for machines and the selfish members who abuse their privileges under crowded conditions.
Apart from the posting of a sign, there are no known effective solutions to this problem. A fitness center might employ a staff person to enforce the time limit policy, however this too is of limited help. For one, the enforcing staff member will likely cause some degree of tension between the center and the selfish member. For another, the fitness center is forced to pay for an employee to carry out this function or use its existing staff to perform this function; either way, such centers do not seek to increase their overhead when it can be helped nor seek to cause strife between their staff and their membership. Accordingly, there is a long-felt need to develop a low-cost or cost-free system of preventing abuse of exercise equipment in a fitness center or similar setting where there are potentially more users of equipment than pieces of equipment.